1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process for recovering carbonaceous organic material from a subterranean formation containing said carbonaceous organic material which comprises introducing into said formation a cyclohexene or a cyclohexadiene, maintaining contact between said carbonaceous organic material and said cyclohexene or a cyclohexadiene for a time and at a temperature sufficient to obtain carbonaceous organic material of reduced viscosity and then recovering carbonaceous organic material of reduced viscosity.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well known that there exist throughout the world subterranean formations containing carbonaceous organic materials that are potentially recoverable by conventional insitu techniques. However, because of the lack of sufficient mobility of some of these carbonaceous organic materials, for example bitumen in tar sands, heavy, viscous crude oils, etc., at formation temperatures and pressures, conventional recovery techniques employed heretofor for substantially complete recovery of these carbonaceous materials have not been completely satisfactory, because they have not been economically and/or technically feasible. In some cases the recovery of carbonaceous materials that lack sufficient mobility in subterranean formation for feasible economic and/or technical recovery has necessitated the removal of the carbonaceous material and its associated inorganic materials from the subterranean formation to the surface for contact with solvent at elevated temperatures, as for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,772,209 and 2,847,306 to Stewart et al.